Dillian Whyte was in attendance during a Matchroom press conference today and took the opportunity to respond publicly to all those who have bashed him for pulling out of a scheduled bout with Otto Wallin while instead seeking to go straight into a bout with Tyson Fury. Taking the stage and responding to those who believe he feigned the injury, Whyte said:
“Sorry I had to pull out the fight because of injury but this is boxing and these things happen, unfortunately. We’re big heavyweights, I’ve been sparring some big guys. I had four massive southpaws in camp…it’s a big fight, I trained hard, I didn’t want to make the same mistake Tyson Fury made…so I was training very hard.
“Things just happen unfortunately. I hear people say ‘you pulled out because Tyson Fury,’ if that was the case I’d have pulled out three, four weeks ago when I knew that the mandatory situation was gonna be in place. My camps cost a lot of money, training camps cost me a lot of money so I’d have pulled out early to save all of this money and stuff like that.
“I’ve fought many camps with injuries as you know, I’ve fought with injured shoulder before, broken hand, broken ribs, but I’m at the stage of my career now where I have to use a bit more brain instead of just brawn, you know. I wanted the fight, I said to my guy ‘listen, can’t I just put some fuckin’ morphine in it or something?’…but they’re like ‘you’re not a caveman, you need to be smart.
“So at this point I’m heart broken but it is what it is. I really wanted this match with Wallin. I think I could’ve knocked him out in the first six, seven rounds. He’s good early but he wants to box and fiddle around, I’d have put pressure on him…I’d have stopped him, I would’ve been attacking his body relentless so I’m a bit pissed off but this is boxing.”
Then Eddie Hearn asked Whyte about his plans to face Tyson Fury straight away, saying his mandatory challenger position with the WBC will be enforced by the sanctioning body.
“People just need to put respect on my name and understand this. Look, I fought Joshua, I fought Rivas, I been trying to fight Fury a couple of times…why would I be scared to fight Otto Wallin?”